A Shared Nightmare
by Satou Asahira
Summary: I woke up in an abandoned hospital only to find my ex-girlfriend is trapped too. Why are we here? What happened to this place? Either way, we gotta get out of here. An alternate retelling of the game with original characters and plot elements.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – The Admittance

"What was it you always used to say?" The voice floated out of the darkness. I couldn't see anything. It felt like I was lying on my back but I couldn't move. "Some people have guardian angels, and some have guardian demons? Your job is not over. You have one more task to complete before you are granted rest. Now, wake up, Allan."

"Allan! Wake up!" My eyes flew open and Christine was standing in front of me, tears streaming down her face. I had fallen asleep...or something while sitting leaning up against a wall it seemed. "Oh, thank God!" she cried and threw her arms around me. I instinctively hugged her back. Old habits die hard I suppose.

"Christine, where are we?" I asked as I looked around. It appeared to be an ordinary hospital room of some sort. The lights here off though and it was nighttime. I could hear the rain beating against the window.

"I don't know!" Christine said and continued to sob into my chest. "I...I woke up in that bed there. An-And the door is lo-lo-loooocked!"

"Sssssh. Calm down," I said and stroked the back of her head. "It's going to be ok." I hoped it would. To be honest, I was terrified. What was this place? What happened here? Why am I here? In this room with her of all people? "Tell me what happened."

She spoke once she had managed to regain a semblance of composure. "I don't know. I vaguely remember being wheeled in on a wheelchair with my wrists tied to the arm rests. The things I saw though..." I could feel her whole body shudder against mine. "The hallways outside were covered in blood! And there were monsters! I'm so scared!" she said and hugged me tighter. "...I woke up in that bed," she said after a couple moments of silence. "I was confused, and scared. You know how I am with the dark." How could I forget? Her inexplicable fear of darkness was the target of many jokes in the past. She's the only 18 year-old I knew that can't sleep without a nightlight. "I tried pressing the call nurse button but no one came. Eventually I got up and tried to leave, but the door's locked. I tried banging on it and I screamed but no one came. I began to think no one was here and I crawled under the blankets in the bed. A few minutes later, someone slammed the door open and you flew into the room. You crashed into the wall and I've been trying to wake you up for the past five minutes at least. I-I thought you were dead!" she yelled and once again buried her face into my chest and cried.

"Come on, Christine," I said after a moment. "Let's see what's going on outside."

"But we can't get out." Her voice was muffled against my shirt.

"Didn't I promise you two years ago? I'd always protect you..." I began to feel melancholy as I recalled the past. But this was not the time. "I know we're not together anymore and that when we were, it was a lie." She cringed at that. It was probably painful for her to be reminded of how she had used me. "That doesn't mean I can go back on my word, though." She reluctantly let go of me and I stood up. As I did, a notepad and a small key that had apparently been placed inside my jacket fell to the floor. I bent to pick them up. _It's too late for you _was written on the pad.

"What do you think that means?" Christine asked.

"No clue," I replied and slipped the notepad into one of the many pockets on my cargo pants without thinking. "But maybe this key can get us out of here." I walked over to the door and pressed my ear against it. Strange, there were no sounds whatsoever coming from the other side. "Well then, shall we?" I put the key into the lock and turned. The click of the lock being released could easily be heard in the silence.

"Wait," Christine said. "I'm scared..."

"Well, what else can we do?" I said patiently. "You already said no one's coming for us. And we can't stay here forever, we'll starve. It doesn't seem like anything's out there so let's just go." I held my hand out to her. "It'll be ok. I promised, remember?" She nodded and took my hand, locking her fingers together with mine. Ah, how I had longed for that sensation for such a long time. Now if only we weren't trapped in some mysterious hospital. I opened the door and immediately regretted doing so.

The dark halls outside our room were in disarray. All kinds of medical equipment and furniture were scattered about as if someone or something had torn through the area in a rage. Blood covered the floor, walls, and even the ceiling. _How did they manage to do that?_ I idly wondered. I could feel Christine's hand tighten its grip on mine and she moved closer to me. There were no lights and a recorded voice repeatedly informed us that "This is an emergency. Everyone must evacuate the building." and that we should "Locate the nearest stairwell." Sage advice. I pulled Christine to the left and we headed down the dark corridor.

It didn't take long for us to find a set of double doors marked "Stairs". "That was easy," I said and went to open the doors. They were locked with a chain and padlock. "You've got to be kidding me...What kind of sick joke is this?"

"It's hopeless! We'll never get out!" Christine cried. Things did seem grim indeed and I was sort of feeling the same thing. But I decided to put on a strong face for her.

"That's not true," I said soothingly. "We just have to find another stairwell. It won't be too hard." We turned back the way we came and decided to go the other direction.

I stopped when my foot kicked a newspaper. I picked it up and examined it. "What are you doing?" Christine asked, the nervousness in her voice was unmistakable. The darkened hallways must scare the shit out of her.

"Figured I'd glance it over," I responded. "Maybe it'll shed some light on what's happening." I began to read out loud. "Fatal car crash kills...twenty people? Damn. A blue Ford pickup collided with a black Subaru yesterday. The force pushed the Subaru over the divider and into traffic heading the opposite direction. Two people miraculously survived and- The rest is faded, I can't read it."

"That's crazy..." Christine said quietly.

"Tell me about it," I said and dropped the paper back onto the floor. "Let's keep moving." I grabbed her hand again. Just ahead of us was a door on the right with a trail of blood leading from the room and continuing further down the hall. "I wanna check it out." I slowly walked through the door. It was another room for a patient only it was in the same bloody state as the hallway we were just in. It was also just as empty. _081399_ was written on the wall in blood. "...The hell?" I muttered aloud. I make a habit of keeping a pencil in my pocket and I took it out. I erased the words on the notepad and wrote the numbers down in their place.

"Why'd you do that?" Christine asked.

"Not entirely sure. It can't hurt."

"Whatever. Let's just get out of here." I nodded and once again took her by the hand. We exited the room headed to the right again. There was an alarmingly large amount of blood on the ground but, seeing as how there was nowhere else to go, we followed it. All of a sudden, we heard a scream and Christine jumped. "What the hell was that?"

"There's someone else here! Come on!" I quickened my pace in time to see a giant creature with a cleaver grafted onto one arm and dragging a bleeding woman on the ground exit into another room. The double doors slammed shut. I let go of Christine's hand and rushed over to them. They were locked. "Dammit!" I growled and pounded my fist on one then fell to my knees. "The only other human here and I couldn't save her..."

"What was that thing?" Christine shrieked and grabbed her head with her hands. "What the hell is going on here? This can't be real! I want to go home!" I knew exactly how she felt. I had never been this scared in my life. But I couldn't let myself be overcome by fear. We'd never get out if both of us freaked out like that.

I walked over to her and, without realizing what I was doing until it was too late, placed my hands on her cheeks and kissed her. She seemed to calm down after a moment and I pulled away. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me."

"No, it...it's alright," she said and looked at her feet. "I never apologized for what I did back then. Never even admitted it to you. I should be the one that's sorry."

"It can wait until after we get out of here. That's what we should be focusing on." She nodded. The doors were locked but the hallway continued around a corner to the right. There was a flashlight on a cart nearby.

"Thank God," she sighed. I grabbed it and flicked it on. Not much but at least we could see where we were going now. I shone the flashlight around to get a better view of our surroundings. Up ahead, there appeared to be shelves for patient records. Papers laid strewn about on the ground along with a shattered computer monitor. I looked behind the desk but there was nothing of interest. The interior designer kept up with the bloody motif here too.

Moving on, I followed the path to a red door with a keypad. I tried the door but it was locked. What a surprise. "What about that notepad?" Christine asked. That had completely slipped my mind. I fished it out of my pocket and tried the six-digit number. It worked and the lock clicked open.

"Good call," I said and opened the door. We were greeted by a mangled dead body on the other side. Christine let out a small scream and covered her mouth. As I turned away, trying to keep my last meal down, I noticed the recorded voice had been replaced with a siren and a flashing red light. Mustering up my courage, I stepped over the body. Christine didn't follow me. I turned and held out my hand to her. "Come on, we have to keep moving. You don't want to stay here forever, do you?" She shook her head. "Let's go then." She hesitated a moment then did as she was told.

On our left was an open door leading to a security station. There was a map on the wall with the 7th floor marked so I presumed that's where we were. Three monitors sat open a desk. Two of them displayed empty rooms and the third was just static. Still no sign of anyone else here. I looked over to the back wall. "Hello, what's this?" There was a gun rack sitting in the back containing shotguns. "Isn't that a little extreme for a hospital? Not that I'm complaining." I tried to open the rack but again, it was locked. We took a couple minutes to search the small office for a key but to no avail. The only thing that turned up was a nightstick. Wouldn't do much if that big thing showed up again but it was better than nothing. It felt comforting to have a weapon other than my fists if something attacked us. As much as I hated the thought of something jumping out at us, it didn't hurt to be prepared.

The hall had all sorts of closets filled with boxes but didn't seem to have anything useful in them. As we moved down the hall, I began to hear something. "What's that growling sound?" Christine asked fearfully.

"I don't know," I replied. But we couldn't go back. The only thing we could do was to keep going forward. I eased my way ahead and let go of Christine's hand so I could ready both the flashlight and the nightstick. All of a sudden, someone lunged at us from one of the closets. Whatever it was, it wasn't human. At least, not anymore. It had large tusks sprouting from its face and its chest cavity was wide open, revealing its beating heart. Christine screamed and that was when my reflexes kicked in. I swung the nightstick and its head came clean off. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to admire my killing prowess. Unlike the movies, it kept coming at us even with its head gone. This time I used my fist and punched it right in the heart. It exploded, showering me with blood but at least the thing went down this time.

I shook my hand in an attempt to rid it of the excess blood but that only did so much. A bit further down the hall, I spotted a couple of bathrooms. "Let me see if the water works," I told Christine. "Come into the men's room with me. It probably wouldn't be good to stay out here alone."

She nodded and followed me. "I would have come in with you anyways. I'd hate to be alone." We entered the bathroom quietly. We couldn't hear anything so I determined it was empty. _You are already dead_ was written on the mirror. "Not very encouraging," Christine said and let out a shaky sigh. I went to the sink and turned on the faucet. Dirty water poured out of it but at least it would wash the blood off my hands. Nothing I could do about my clothes, though.

"If you have to go to the bathroom, now's the time," I said as I rinsed off my hands. The soap dispensers were empty, sadly.

"I'm fine. Let's just hurry up and go." There were no paper towels either, so I ended up just wiping my hands on my pants. We exited the bathroom back into the hall. Opposite of the bathroom door was a door marked _Patient Ward_. Even though it had a glass window, it was covered with grime and I couldn't see through. I opened the door and peered through. There were beds scattered about the room with other various medical equipment and the floor was littered with corpses. I didn't know whether to be sad or glad nothing was moving.

"It's clear," I said and pushed the door open. We made our way slowly through the room. It didn't take long for us to hear a familiar growling sound. "Not again..." One of the corpses began to get up off the ground. "Come on! Let's go!" I shouted. I pulled Christine and ran. I didn't want to have to deal with more of those things if I could help it. Maybe we could block the door on the other side or something. More of the corpses began to get up but I paid them no heed.

I burst through the double doors and quickly closed them. There was nothing to block the door with but the monsters didn't seem to be following us. Still, I didn't like waiting around for them to catch up. The path went to the right to another door. I opened that and it led to another hall.

"Every place we go to looks the same," Christine said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say we've been here before." She was right. The hall with the crumbling walls and floor. The bloodstains covering said walls and floor. The furniture thrown about. "We're going to be lost here forever, aren't we?" She sounded as if she was admitting defeat.

"If we keep going, we'll eventually find a way out. Who knows? Maybe if we start to work our way down, we can just jump from the second floor or something. It'll be alright. Trust me." Only, I was having a hard time believing that myself. Something was wrong here. Almost every door we'd encountered had been locked. But someone had so generously written down the code for the padlock. Were we being kept on a linear path by that same someone? Regardless, no good would come from speculation at this point.

We decided to keep moving. The right was a dead end so we headed left instead. When we came to another intersection, there was a sign that said _Roof Access_ with an arrow pointing left on the wall. Stairs! I glanced to the right see a pile of desks and cabinets rendering it impassable so I had no choice but to follow the arrow even if I had wanted to go that way.

I pushed open the door marked _Stairs_ and felt the last of my hope be extinguished by what I saw on the other side. The staircase leading down was blocked by more desks and cabinets. They were firmly wedged so that they would budge even when I pushed with all my might. Who does something like that? What on Earth would possess someone to go around locking doors and blocking paths, then throwing us in here? Couldn't Jigsaw or someone come out and tell us the rules? At least then I'd know why I'm here and what's going on.

Left with no other choice, we wordlessly ascended the stairs to the roof.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The Rooftop

It was raining outside, and freezing cold. Normally I liked the rain, but it made my current situation even more miserable. There was a waist-high chain link fence in front of us. I looked down but it was too dark to even see the ground. We seemed to be a lot higher up than the 7th floor.

The walkway we were standing on continued to the right and we had no choice but to follow it. The path veered to the right again and I began to hear a now all-too-familiar growling noise. "Behind you!" Christine yelled. Another one of those _things_ was climbing up the fence trying to get onto the walkway.

I turned and stomped on its hands, making it lose its grip and fall. I let out a sigh of relief. But that relief was short lived as two other monsters managed to make it onto the walkway. "Dammit! Run!" I've probably run more in the past hour than I have in a whole month. Maybe after this I'll try out for the Olympics.

Further ahead was some sort of small building. There was a large trail of blood leading from it down the walkway. "Maybe we can hide in there for awhile!" Christine said. It was a good idea. A little break from all of this would be nice. Provided whatever spilled all that blood wasn't still in there.

We burst through the door and were shocked to see another human sitting at a table in the shadows. He was holding a handgun and fired at us. I ducked and pulled Christine down just in time to dodge the bullet. "You want a piece of me?" the man said in a New York accent. Was that where we were or was he from out of state? "Well come and get me, you freak!"

"Whoa! We're human!" I shouted. "Don't shoot!"

"Hey, you're not one of them?" the man asked hesitantly. "Come on over here." Christine and I stood and began to walk slowly towards him with our hands to show that we meant no harm. As we got closer and he saw we were indeed human, he began to smile. "Man, am I-"

"Look out!" Christine screamed. One of the monsters had been hiding in the shadows. I was surprised none of us had noticed until now. Surely that man must have known it was here. How had he not known?

It grabbed him from behind and pulled him down, knocking the table over in the process. The handgun clattered onto the floor. Without thinking, I lunged and grabbed it. Then, using the table as cover, I stood and fired at the monster, bringing it down in one shot. I looked at the man lying on the ground. His head had been ripped clean off.

Feeling completely devoid of hope, I slumped against the table and slowly slid to the ground. Christine was crying again but I didn't have the strength to get up and comfort her. Other than each other, we had met two people so far. One died moments after we met him and the other is presumably dead after we saw her for mere milliseconds.

I looked at the gun in my hand and wondered if it would be comforting to place the barrel to my temple. To know that all it would take was five pounds of pressure on the trigger and it would be all over. Of course, I couldn't do that to Christine. Maybe I could kill her first, then myself. It would be a mercy kill, wouldn't it?

Her face was buried in her hands and she wasn't looking at me. I aimed the gun at her head with a grim expression on my face. My hand was shaking slightly but I kept the gun trained on her sobbing figure. After a moment though, I lowered the gun and let out a defeated sigh. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I loved her, even if she didn't really love me.

We sat like that for a few moments, she crying in the corner and me leaning against the fallen table, before I finally mustered up the will to speak. "Let's stay here for a bit. We could use some rest." Christine said something but I couldn't make it out. Her face was still covered by her hands. "Huh?"

"I want to go home," she said quietly, but still loud enough for me to hear it. "Please, let's just get out of here." She was right. We've been sitting around long enough. I'd rather face the nightmares out there and have a chance of making it home than wait here and die a slow death of hunger or dehydration. I had already made up my mind that suicide was out of the question.

I fiddled with the gun until I figured out how to remove the clip. It appeared to be full. Looking back at the man, I noticed he had a couple more lying on the ground and stuffed them into my cargo pants. That was about as prepared as we could get for the horrors that awaited us.

I opened the door slightly and peered outside. None of those freaks were in sight. I motioned for Christine to stay put for a minute while I walked out. Still nothing. "Clear," I said and held out my hand. It was then that I realized that I can't hold the gun, flashlight, and her hand at the same time. We had made it okay so far but I'd feel more comfortable having the gun at the ready at all times. Quite the conundrum.

Sensing my dilemma, Christine spoke up. "I can hold the flashlight if you want." A good idea, only there was one problem.

"If you get scared and flail about, I won't be able to see," I said bluntly. It wasn't exactly a nice way to put it but it had to be said. The majority of the hospital had poor lighting and it didn't seem the sun was coming up any time soon. On top of all that, my bullets were extremely scarce. I didn't want to waste them by blindly shooting in the dark.

"I want to help," Christine said with a touch of sadness in her voice. "Up until now, I've just been relying on you to do everything. We both want to get through this so we should work as a team. Please, Allan. Trust me."

"Alright," I said and took her hand in mine. "Let's find our way back inside before I catch a cold." I had been standing outside during the entire exchange and had become thoroughly soaked. A pained expression surfaced on her face but I smiled to indicate it was a joke and that it wasn't something she should worry about.

She smiled back slightly and we continued along the linear path, following the trail of blood. It didn't take long for us to run into another monster. Christine squeezed my hand and moved behind me but to her credit, she managed to keep the light trained on the beast.

It noticed us and began to charge. I had never held a gun in my life but if I didn't learn quick, we'd both be dead. I fired but the shot went wide and past its left side. "Fuck!" I said under my breath and steadied my aim. I pulled the trigger again and this time hit my target: its beating heart. The creature fell back, blood spurting from its chest cavity.

I let out a sigh and lowered my gun. Christine seemed to relax too and joined me at my side. I nodded to her and we walked on. Stepping over our enemy's corpse, I saw a door leading back into the building. I opened it and readied my gun as Christine shone her flashlight at the same time. Our teamwork wasn't so bad after all, it seemed.

We descended the stairwell in front of us back down to the 7th floor. I checked the stairs leading further down just in case. By a stroke of luck, it was unblocked. "Yes!" I cried. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.

I was quickly proven wrong, however, when I saw that the stairs to the 5th floor were blocked with the same mess of furniture I had grown accustomed to finding in our way.

"I guess we'll have to look for another staircase," Christine said and hung her head.

"Looks that way," I said and turned to the double doors in front of us. "On three, shine the light inside." She nodded. "One...two...three!" I kicked the doors wide open.


End file.
